Biddle: If Scott is ready, he will get starting nod at tailback for Raiders

Friday

Oct 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2008 at 9:30 PM

What happens if both Jordan Scott and Nate Eachus are ready to play this week? “That would be a good dilemma to have,” said Colgate University football coach Dick Biddle as his team prepared for Saturday’s Patriot League showdown with Lafayette (2-0, 6-1) at 1 p.m. at Andy Kerr Stadium.

What happens if both Jordan Scott and Nate Eachus are ready to play this week?

“That would be a good dilemma to have,” said Colgate University football coach Dick Biddle as his team prepared for Saturday’s Patriot League showdown with Lafayette (2-0, 6-1) at 1 p.m. at Andy Kerr Stadium.

Scott is the Raiders’ all-time leading rusher. Eachus has rushed for 455 yards and six touchdowns with Scott bothered by a bad ankle the last two weeks. Don’t expect them to alternate series against the Leopards, though.

“If Jordan is available, he would be the back,” Biddle said. “We’ve never worked it that way.”

Eachus, who also has played linebacker, will play on special teams if Scott is ready to go.

Colgate (2-0, 6-2) has won five consecutive games. The Raiders have won 10 of the last 11 games with the Leopards, and own a 37-10-4 lead in the series. The teams share the Patriot League lead with Holy Cross.

Biddle likes what his team has done so far, especially after early season losses to Stony Brook and Furman.

“I think we’ve hung in,” he said. “We’ve been pretty good on offense. I think we’re still a work in progress on defense. We have not played particularly well on special teams. But they know how to win. They play hard, and they are resilient.”

Joe Russo, a senior captain from Thomas R. Proctor High School, is Lafayette’s starting fullback. A standout blocker, he has carried 26 times for 116 yards and two touchdowns and has seven receptions for 68 yards and a touchdown.

Middlebury (3-3) |at Hamilton (2-4), 1 p.m.

The Continentals have just two games left, and although they can’t have a winning season, they can go .500.

They have to defeat Middlebury to have a chance, and the Panthers are averaging 34 points and have been held under 31 just once.

“They have the No. 1 scoring offense in the league (NESCAC),” said Continentals coach Steve Stetson. “Nobody has stopped them. Nobody has come close to stopping them.”

Hamilton will try with the league’s third-ranked defense, which is allowing 298 yards and 17 points per game.

Senior Trevor Pedrick leads the unit with 54 tackles, and fellow linebacker John Lawrence has 38 tackles and five interceptions.

“I think Pedrick and Lawrence are playing about as well as anybody in the conference,” Stetson said. “Trevor is third in the conference in tackles and John leads in interceptions, and he’s a linebacker.”

Linebackers James Gibson and Brian O’Malley have 32 and 30 tackles, Taylor Soobitsky has 30 tackles and four sacks and Ted Finan has three interceptions.

The young offense has had its troubles the last two weeks, however, and netted just 75 yards in a 14-7 rain-soaked loss to Williams.

The Panthers are averaging 448 yards.

Donald McKillop has completed 171 of 254 passes (67 percent) for a whopping 1,940 yards and 10 touchdowns, but does have 13 interceptions. Andrew Matson has 43 catches for 637 yards and five touchdowns.

St. John Fisher (5-3) at Utica (2-5), 1:30 p.m.

The Pioneers lost 42-7 to No. 24 Ithaca, but coach Blaise Faggiano liked a lot of what he saw.
Now his Pioneers have to face another Empire 8 power in Fisher, where Faggiano coached the coached the last nine years, recruiting quite a few of the Cardinal players.

“Our guys get excited about these games,” he said. “We aspire to be Ithaca and St. John Fisher. Right now we’re a little bit young.”

UC again will go with freshman quarterback Mike Clark, who rushed 17 times for 85 yards against the Bombers. He completed just 7 of 19 passes for 52 yards, but Faggiano counted eight drops by the receivers.

“He has a strong arm, he ran the option and he had a great week of practice,” Faggiano said in explaining his decision to start the freshman. “We went with youth. Our older players know it and accept it. The team is a close team.”

Faggiano continues to see good things in his young players – freshmen Billy Northey, Tyler Maligasi and Tyler Olles were praised – and was especially happy that his junior varsity team defeated Ithaca in three overtimes Sunday.

Fisher is led by quarterback Tim Bailey – 2,135 yards and 19 touchdowns already – and has a host of Mohawk Valley players, including leading receiver Jimmy Smith of Oneida (41 catches, 631 yards, three touchdowns) and starting offensive tackle Kevin Dwyer of New Hartford. Other Mohawk Valley players on the team are Eric Dowsland of Hamilton, Mike Donaruma and Rocco Arcuri of Notre Dame, Ryan McQueen of Whitesboro and Kyle Hutchinson of New Hartford.

Brockport (4-3) vs. |Morrisville (0-7), 7 p.m.

Morrisville has moved its home game, originally scheduled for 1 p.m. at Drake Field, to the artificial turf at Colgate’s Andy Kerr Stadium.

The Mustangs, a provisional member of NCAA Division III, are still looking for their first victory after a 38-28 loss to Kean last week. They defeated Brockport 20-19 last season.